Day 12.1: Importance of Layout

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! I just got back from a fine brunch myself, and am spending some time with my family today. I thought I'd temporarily shift the focus of this blog from online moneymaking back to self-publishing and offline work.


I've used both Createspace and InDesign to craft my own books before, and there were some things about it that caught me off guard. Whatever you do online or offline, you want your work to look professional. You want to give people confidence in your service, and you want to give them the feeling that you know what you're about. To do that, you need to be an observer.

When self-publishing a book, you need to know everything about books. Inside, outside. If using Adobe InDesign, it's a good idea to pick a few printed books that you like and examine their layouts. How thick are the margins? How big are the pages? How is the Table of Contents laid out? You should  keep in mind also that it's not a word document. The paragraph indents will probably be not nearly as dramatic as on the computer, and the font size is probably going to be smaller than you use typing (usually p10 or p11). With Createspace it's much easier to design a book for mass production, but you still need to study the details. Without a professional editor you should keep an eye out for the tiniest of errors. Ordering or printing a proof copy is an important step here. With a proof copy you can examine the physical book and decide what needs to change.

Hopefully these tips will help those of you who are specifically interested in self-publishing. If you're more interested in online publishing, you should also take into account the layout of your page. Is it easy to maneuver? Does it look pleasant, and does it give off the over-all feel of whatever your writing?

I'm not that great of an artist, but people do judge books by their covers, and the details do make all the difference.

Please follow me for Twitter for more updates and tips, or join me in Clixsense for some fun!

Day 3.2: Different Methods of Self-Publishing

There's a lot more to self-publishing than simply signing onto a self-publishing website and clicking a few buttons. The kind of book you want to publish, the distribution and audience, and how much you want to pay or spend all must come into account. For this blog I'm mostly going to examine mass distribution methods, but right now let's just go through all the options.

First is the production of the book itself. Do you want to make the copies yourself or have them printed professionally? If you have a computer, a printer and a stapler, then art books or small booklets can be produced easily at home and then distributed. You can ask local businesses if they would be interested in carrying a few copies, and pass other copies out to your friends. For a more formal copy or a longer book, other types of binding may be needed. The book Indie Publishing by Ellen Lupton has everything you would ever need to know when it comes to self publishing and binding, so if you wish to take a more formal route in making your own books, then I really highly recommend it. The hardest thing I have experienced when it comes to making books is arranging the layout. I've tried several design programs to help formatting the book to make it look professional, and so far the only one that is not a total nightmare is Adobe's Indesign. Even with that, however, it helps to have an Indesign manual or booklet at hand. Take a look at the links below for more info!



Using the services of a professional printer and/or distributor is highly recommended if you want to make a profit from your book. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a big fan of Createspace, but whatever publisher you go with also depends on what you want. If you're going for the best of the best, some companies, like Wine Press Publishing, offer professional cover design, editing, and marketing tools. It's a bit pricy, but the results are incredible.

Whatever you decide to go with, make sure it's in your budget. If you're not an artist or designer, then ask a friend who is. Createspace offers many opportunities for quality self publishing at a low cost--even free, if you're desperate (though you should at least order a proof, for editing purposes).